- Title: Taken at Birth: Stolen Babies, Hidden Lies, and My Journey to Finding Home
- Author: Jane Blasio
- Genre: Memoir, True Crime
- Where to buy: Amazon (affiliate link)
- Would I recommend: If you’re interested in gripping true crime stories that also involve family and identity and faith, you will want to read this!
From Goodreads:
From the 1940s through the 1960s, young pregnant women entered the front door of a clinic in a small North Georgia town. Sometimes their babies exited out the back, sold to northern couples who were desperate to hold a newborn in their arms. But these weren’t adoptions–they were transactions. And one unethical doctor was exploiting other people’s tragedies.
Jane Blasio was one of those babies. At six, she learned she was adopted. At fourteen, she first saw her birth certificate, which led her to begin piecing together details of her past. Jane undertook a decades-long personal investigation to not only discover her own origins but identify and reunite other victims of the Hicks Clinic human trafficking scheme. Along the way she became an expert in illicit adoptions, serving as an investigator and telling her story on every major news network.
Taken at Birth is the remarkable account of her tireless quest for truth, justice, and resolution. Perfect for book clubs, as well as those interested in inspirational stories of adoption, human trafficking, and true crime.
My review:
I enjoy a good memoir, and Taken at Birth was just that. Jane Blasio’s true story of learning her parents bought her from a shady doctor in small-town Georgia is gripping, intense, and hard to put down once you get started.
I was adopted as an infant, so I can relate, just a little, to some of Jane’s experience. My adoption went through an agency – I wasn’t a black market baby. My parents told me I was adopted as soon as I was old enough to understand. I don’t remember a time I didn’t know I was adopted, and very much wanted, and very much loved. But I can empathize with Jane’s desire to know her roots, her people.
Dr. Hicks was a man who coerced young women into giving up their babies, or worse yet, aborted their babies against their will. A man who profited off of the heartache of couples unable to have children of their own. And yet, his family did good for the community of McCaysville, Georgia, to the point that a lot of people weren’t happy with Jane coming around, poking into things they considered none of her business.
But Jane persevered, and found not only the truth of her family, but also helped other birth mothers and “Hicks babies,” as they became known, find each other, or at least find closure. Her story is well worth the read.
Giveaway!
Want to win a copy? Just leave me a comment below and let me know how to contact you if you win. I’ll choose the winner by random number generator on Friday, August 13.
About the Author
Sounds like a very good read. I hope this book will help other young women.